DIY Music Blog – Still here… barely!

Well… what can I say? I’ve been rather quiet on the DIY Music website front and I apologise for that. Other priorities, commitments and responsibilities have taken over. It’s not that I’ve abandoned the site, I simply haven’t had time to create new content for it. I am taking a moment now to quickly update y’all on what I’ve been up to though.

Family First

The main change in my lifestyle has come about as a result of deciding to have a baby. Little Vinnie is already 16 months old (they’re not lying when they say they grow up quickly!) and running about the place, causing havoc and generally being completely and utterly adorable.

I moved all my gear from the spare room to convert it to his nursery and I’ve now settled in nicely to the living room… though I have had to put up a little fence to keep the boy away from all the cables. And I’m using headphones more than the studio monitors so I can work after his bedtime. Despite these new conditions I’ve actually been more prolific and happier than ever with the quality of my work.

Everything Else

The rest of my available time is full of work and play. I still haven’t quit the day job. Not even considering it. Music makes a little pocket money but no way near enough pay the bills, let alone afford any luxuries. So that’s nine-to-five every weekday booked up. Then I have my musical projects.

Humjunkie! Yeah… not actually released anything as Humjunkie for a while either. I have lots of tracks started and concept ideas for four different albums/EPs but a lot of work to do before they’re ready.

I did eventually finish (aka: give up on) a song as Frank Insomnia. This was an immense learning experience and I re-recorded, remixed and remastered it a number of times without ever really getting to a point where I was completely happy with it. So I decided enough was enough and I needed to let it go and move onto the next thing, taking the lessons learned with me. You can listen to it if you like. I’m painfully aware of many problems with it… whilst also being a little proud of how it turned out.

Aside from my own stuff I have been working more and more with other artists. I can honestly say that collaboration is a great route to inspiration and productivity. Having written the music for and mixed/mastered a song called iQueue by Collectible Humans I embarked on a partnership with Adam Selene and helped with production on seven more tracks which were released monthly. You can check those out below if you’re interested. We’ve finished the monthly song project and will now be working on a full EP, probably to release sometime next year. (Note that I didn’t work on track 8 below but I mixed/mastered all the rest with some production input on each).

In addition, I have completed a three track EP with another US artist, Colin Ward, AKA; Happy Tooth. This partnership came about directly as a result of mixing an Adam Selene song that Happy Tooth featured on, which is a great example of networking in action! This time the songs began as a collection of ‘sketches’ I shared with Colin. There were about fifteen basic ideas for instrumentals that could be picked up and developed. He chose three in the end and we spent three months building them into full tracks. Colin really poured his heart out into the lyrics and performance and I tried my best to create a production to compliment his style. We’re both really pleased with the results and hope to work together again. You can take a listen below.

All of this work has led to new connections and new opportunities which are still in the process of realisation. I have mixing jobs and new collaborations coming up that I’m very excited about and will be sure to tell you about in the next post (probably in another six months!).

And Another Thing

So that’s all the musical stuff. I did say I’d been getting prolific! And it’s not letting up any time soon. And you know what… I love it! Working on music is my lifeblood and long may it continue.

Aside from that, I’ve also been working hard on a new website. Audio Plugin Guy. This has been a great outlet for my slightly nerdy and obsessive love of digital effects and synthesisers. This has grown pretty quickly and my articles are regularly appearing on the first page of Google as well as being shared around the music producer community.

Even with all this going on I have not abandoned DIY Music. Despite not really updating the site I am still active on social media via the Facebook Page and Facebook group. I actually find this better than writing blogs all the time as I can really get involved in a community, sharing and discussing relevant information as it arises. That said, I will still be updating the site now and then…. so stay tuned. And thanks for reading!